1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to networked databases, such as the Internet, and, more particularly, to a computer implemented method of providing a user of the Internet with a guided tour of the World Wide Web (WWW) or similar information databases.
2. Background Description
The Internet is a collection of networks that allows users at disparate, heterogeneous computer systems to communicate with each other across organizational and geographical boundaries. The Internet uses a packet switched protocol referred to as the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Full Internet access usually includes five key features; electronic mail (e-mail), logging on to Internet-connected computers using Telnet, transferring files from Internet-connected computers using File Transfer Protocol (FTP), getting access to discussion groups, and using various information-research tools, especially the World Wide Web (WWW). The present invention is particularly concerned with the World Wide Web.
The World Wide Web is a hypertext-based information service that makes collections of information available across the Internet. It allows Web browser clients to access information from any accessible Web server and supports multiple media types. The World Wide Web can be used to invoke other software by means of embedded hypertext links. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is used to describe static text documents, and a Web browser is essentially an HTML interpreter. A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is basically a network location which tells the user not only where something is (its address), but also what it is. The basic form of a URL address is service://hostname/path which identifies what Internet service is needed to reach the resource, what computer it is located on, and enough detail to find what is being searched for.
Embedded hypertext links on a given Web page can be used to find information related to the given Web page. By clicking on a hypertext link in one Web page, the user can display another related Web page or even invoke a related program. With the explosion of information on the World Wide Web, there are many potential new users who would like to search for information on the World Wide Web. The problem is that there is no effective interactive system for guiding a user through a tour of the World Wide Web which uses actual Web pages.
There are three fairly obvious existing methods to guide a surfing session. One is simply to create an HTML file with commentary and links to the sites on the tour. Of course, in this case one must back up from each site to be presented with the next link. The second way is the web equivalent of simulation; i.e., make copies of all pages on the tour, save them on your own web page, and modify them as suits your purposes. A third way is similar to the second except more automatic; e.g., surf indirectly via a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script which inserts modifications into the tour page before forwarding them to the end user.